Homemade liquid feed

Liquid feed made from herbs or seaweed is an awesome tonic for the garden. It's an instant hit - soaked up through the foliage, and put to work right away strengthening cells and boosting biology.

Use it during inclement weather, on vegies that are growing slowly, fruit trees with poor vigour, or anywhere pests are heavy duty - as often as weekly, as and when you feel it's required.

• Only use rain or spring water - i.e unchlorinated and unflouridated water
• I prefer to make little batches and often so that I use it all up quick smart while its fresh.
• Use herbs and/ or seaweed - manure is way too strong!

Here are 3 ways: a 'Herb Tea' for either seaweed, or herbs, a 'Herb Concentrate' purely for herbs, and an 'Emergency Instant Brew' for when life is busy.

Herb tea

You need a sack, secteurs, a bucket, and something to cover the bucket to prevent rain getting in.

• Fill a sack with either seaweed or herbs or a mix. Harvest a mix of lush, vital herbs - dandelion, comfrey, stinging nettle, lemon balm, borage, tansy, plantain - any will do!
• Tie it off at the top like a giant teabag and sit it in a bucket of water to steep. There are no hard and fast rules regards size of sack and size of bucket - I treat it exactly like a cup of tea, using the same ratio of teabag to cup.
• Pop a lid on and sit the bucket somewhere near your daily travels. Warmth is good to help steeping happen. I use the greenhouse in cooler periods, or beneath a tree in hot periods.
• Give it a good stir, as you walk past.
• In about 4 - 6 weeks when the brew is a good colour and smells hearty, use it.
• Tip the spent herbs onto your compost, or around citrus, avocados or heavy feeders. Dilute the tea to the colour of weak tea and pour or spray.

PS the sack is optional! You could just put the herbs in the bucket of water without the sack, then strain it into your watering can or backpack sprayer through some hessian or frost cloth.

Herb concentrate

You need two buckets - one with holes in the bottom, one without. Sit the holey bucket inside the un-holey bucket, like a steamer inside a pot. The bottom bucket collects the liquid as the herbs decompose and drip.

• Fill the holey bucket with comfrey and any other lush herbal foliage.
• Put a weight like stones or bricks on top to press the herbs down. Store it in warm shade and cover with a sack to keep the bugs out but let the air flow.
• Leave it alone to brew for about 6 weeks. You'll be stoked to know this is completely pong-free.

It's ready when 99% of the raw ingredients have turned to black sludge and there's a lovely puddle of black goodness in the bottom. From a 30litre tub of herbs I get about 2 - 3 litres of concentrate.

Dilute the concentrate 1:10 or 1:20 - so it looks like a cup of weak tea. Less is more! Dollop the rotten herbs around some deserving, fruit-producing plants.

An emergency instant brew

If you don't have a herbal brew on the go, and you have plants in need of boosting, make a quick compost or vermicast tea.

• Put a big handful of vermicasts and/ or mature compost into a 10 litre bucket of rainwater.
• Stir it vigorously getting a good vortex going.
• Strain it through a sack or some such into your backpack sprayer or watering can and pour it on.